U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,532,415, 5,387,612, 5,453,446, 5,457,133, 5,599,991, 5,744,500, 5,891,923, 5,668,181, 5,576,353, 5,519,061, 5,786,390, 6,316,504, 6,630,514 disclose R(+)-N-propargyl-1-aminoindan (“R-PAI”), also known as rasagiline. Rasagiline has been reported to be a selective inhibitor of the B-form of the enzyme monoamine oxidase (“MAO-B”) and is useful in treating Parkinson's disease and various other conditions by inhibition of MAO-B in the brain. U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,968 and PCT publication WO 95/11016 disclose pharmaceutical compositions comprising rasagiline salts.
Rasagiline mesylate is approved for treating Parkinson's disease either as monotherapy or as an adjunct with other treatments. See, e.g. AGILECT®, Physician's Desk Reference (2006), 60th Edition, Thomson Healthcare.
A synthesis of rasagiline is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,415 in which example 3 describes recovery of rasagiline base as an oil after chromatographic separation. The other synthetic examples in U.S. Pat. No. 5,532,415 show rasagiline salt preparation from its crude form or its racemic form which is further reacted with appropriate acids to form pharmaceutically acceptable salts.
However, the existence or preparation of a crystalline form of rasagiline free base is not disclosed in the art.